Dear Carlos,

Your message knocked me very hard!

I assume that the clam (probably Ruditapes philippinarum)
may be coming from N. Korea.

This clam is under huge public attention in Japan, because
of the issue of abduction of Japanese citizens by N. K.

We have the same clam as one of the most important
seafood species and used to produce enough quantity
for the domestic consumption at more than 100,000 tones.
However, its production went down to 30,000 in recent
decades (and it continues to drop). The import of the clam
from Korea and China went up to fill the demands at
about 70,000 tones per year. This commodity became
one of the most important cash crop in the North Korea.

Now, there is a strong nationwide movements to
refuse consumption of seafoods originated from the
country in question, in order to send our message
so that our abducted citizens to be sent back home.

I suspect that the clam is directed to Europe consumers
after losing the nearby customer: Japan.

Masashi Yamaguchi
Faculty of Science, Univ. of the Ryukyus

---- Original Message -----
From: "Carlos Afonso" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 1:20 AM
Subject: Veneridae help and ID


> Dear Friends,
>
> There is a Veneridae species that is imported from
> Korea and sold in Portugal as Tapes sp. for edible
> reasons (maybe Tapes japonica!!). What I have been
> said is that this species is cultured in large
> quantities in Korea, deep frozen and then exported.
> Since the shell is very similar to Tapes decussates,
> it is sometime sold in restaurants as T. decussates
> with out people even knowing. T. decussates is sold at
> a relatively high price (7 to 10 euro Kg) here in
> Portugal while this Tapes sp. from Korea can be bought
> at 2euro per Kg.
> I am sure this occurs with other edible as well as
> collectable species :-)...
>
> If someone could help me out with the ID and any other
> addition information for this species I would be more
> then happy.
> I can send attachment image but could not post it on
> Conch-L.
> My best and sincere regards and thank you,
> Carlos Afonso
>
>
>
>
>
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